Aspies For Freedom

The Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/article/301289

Quick fix' wanted for girl, MD says
Mother disappointed by girl's prognosis hours before child drowned in tub, pediatrician tells court
Feb 07, 2008 04:30 AM
Peter Small
Courts Bureau

A woman accused of drowning her 4-year-old autistic daughter in the family bathtub was looking for a quick fix for the girl's disability, a pediatrician says.

She was disappointed when told, hours before the child died, there would be none, said Dr. James Leung.

Xuan Peng, accompanied by her own mother, took her daughter Scarlet to Leung on April 8, 2004 to see about the child's delayed development, the doctor said yesterday at the woman's trial.

Peng is charged with second-degree murder, accused of drowning her daughter Scarlet Chen in a bathtub at their Rosebank Dr. home, near Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E., on July 12, 2004.

"In their mind, they still hadn't given up on a quick solution," Leung told prosecutor Joshua Levy.

Leung told a Superior Court jury Scarlett had delayed motor, language and communication skills and functioned at the level of a 1 1/2  to 2-year-old.

Doctors in China, where Scarlet had been living with her grandmother, Li Ning, said she had hydrocephalus (water in the brain) and the mother and grandmother hoped that surgery in Canada would cure her.

Leung said he was skeptical of that diagnosis, but ordered a CT scan for the girl.

On the day the girl died, Peng, her husband David Chen and mother Ning took Scarlet to Leung for a follow-up visit.

Leung told court the results of the CT scan were normal and that he told the family there was nothing to be done for the girl surgically.

Peng and her mother peppered him with questions, he said, asking whether there was any hope. "They were disappointed," he said, adding that was a typical reaction for families.

Hours later Scarlet was found drowned in her bathtub, court has been told.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Kathryn Wells, Leung said he never suggested there was no hope for Scarlett.

"There are all kinds of programs," he said, to help her adjust to the reality that she would always be developmentally delayed, he said.

The trial continues.

Something tells me that the way specialists tell parents that their child is autistic could be improved. And the parents must have a better opportunity to learn more, maybe by engaging in some kind of autism community.

That area is very close to where I live (like 30 minutes). That's terrible, terrible news.

Yes, exactly right.  In my daughter's case, the examiner just burst into the room, saying "I think it's autism!" like it was the worst and most shocking thing in the world.  If I had not proceeded immediately and headlong into my OWN research, it could have gone VERY BADLY.  But within days, I was like, OK, she's autistic, and so am I, and so is her dad, and it's NO BIG DEAL.  Basically, I early on took a f*** that sh*t attitude, and was immune to their suggestions and predictions of doom and gloom.  I pity parents who take these experts warnings to heart, but at the same time, condemn them for rejecting their own children.  But more so, I condemn the experts for telling parents all of this crap.

At first the drowning was considered accidental.  The mother said she had put some items in the bath tub to soak and her daughter fell in.  When the evidence was examined, the items such as a shower curtain were found neatly folded in another bath tub.  It was doubtfully that the daughter had moved the items and arranged them so before accidentally falling into the water.  The examination of the girl's body showed that she was held down on her back under the water when she drowned not as if she just fell into the water.  Her mother drowned her and then lied about it.  She drowned her daughter only because she had autism.  

How can anyone blame a doctor?  She wanted to fix her child to make her "perfect".  When she found she could not, she destroyed her life.  She should be put in jail and never allowed to take care of children again.

It is concerning that these murders or 'mercy killings' as some people might prefer to brand them seem to be becoming more popular.

My parents tried (and failed) to kill me.

I'm not blaming the doctor, I blame lack of knowledge. The mom should get just as high penalty for the murder as a mom who kills her neurotypical daughter, because there's no mercy for what she did. But I still believe it is possible that some of these things could be prevented if parents aren't left in the darkness like I get the impression this mother was.

Warning: Violent content ahead.

Breeze, it's unfortunate but Canada's court system is a complete joke. It's terrible. A mother recently got charged for murder for stabbing her 6 month old baby 36 times with a butcher knife and only got 9 years in jail. As I said, its a joke here in Canada.

Warning! Slightly Racial remarks!

(Please note I am not a bigot, I do have respect for the Chinese to some degree though my thoughts are angry and irrated)

I am not really suprise, the woman is Chinese. Considering their culture is so fucked right now it doesn't surprise me that she murdered her daughter. In there eyes, she doesn't deserve to live. They have no love for the disabled or female.

I think this mother panicked. That doesn't excuse what she did but partly explains it.

Not a problem saying that the culture can cause problems, but it might be better if you didn't call it fucked up.

The child was born in Canada.  Her father found her dead in the bathtub.  

"Chen and his wife came from China to Canada in 1998; Scarlett, who was born in 2000, was their only child. The 2005 Globe and Mail story noted that, at the time of her death, Scarlett, who did not speak, was reported to have “mild autism.” While the September 17th Edmonton Sun article notes that Scarlett was autistic, Chen was quoted in 2005 as saying “‘She was a very active girl, very lovely and we love her so much. Our family didn’t think she had autism.’”  She loved to ride her bike in the park but she didn't play with other children.  

I don't know what role culture could have been in her murder.

It's not just the Chinese culture, you know. I mean, they're not as far as we are when it comes to disability rights; but who came up with that Ransom Notes campaign? Yeah, it wasn't the Chinese.

It's just humanity. Stupid, senseless, ignorant, hateful humanity. Culture only determines how it's expressed; but it'll always be there.

I'll agree it's probably harder to have a disabled kid in some cultures than in others. It's probably considered much more shameful in some areas. Doesn't excuse murder, of course...

Well what would call lack of ethics?

I called it "fucked up"

Yeah. Most NTs think of autism as something faceless, like we're not real people or something. Most of them, once they demystify it, put a face on it, won't be nearly as frightened. It's a weird NT quirk, but there you go--they have to meet somebody from a category before they can stop being scared of him just because he's different.